Some
linguists complain about the unprecedented disappearance of
minority languages throughout the world. The phenomenon
is compared with the recent mass extermination of animals.
Although parallels undoubtedly exist, as a biologist I want to
comment on important differences between these two phenomena.

We
should accept that in general biological extinction represents
a completely irretrievable loss of unique, sometimes beautiful
or certainly interesting animals and consequently a decrease
in biodiversity. And biodiversity influences the
stability of the ecosystem.

However
when one discusses the diversity of languages that means only
the one recognises the existence of various languages.
It would be difficult to support the idea that linguistic
diversity would help the stability of anything at all.

If a
language disappears, that doesn't mean that the human concepts
and way of thinking disappear as well.